Well, this has got to be one of the least user intuitive apps I've seen. Glad it was given to me, they went on to Quark.

These text frames and overset text... Who thought of this.

I have some kind of overset issue. So, turned on the threads and well, for a 50+ page document, guess what. The threads aren't conveniently displayed in the page palet (fly-out thing), no. User must scroll though the (whatever it's called, document, story, chapter), I'll just say document, and then the blue lines representing the threads mysteriously appear and disappear, for given pages. If I had to guess I'd say there are about 3-5 sets of them at various points throughout the document. When one set ends, the next begins.

I suppose it was too much to either by default or have an option to allow threads to be seen in the page fly-out thing, so that then it could be expanded to the entire window, and the pages displayed at whatever size necessary to view the entire thread status for the entire document of 50+ pages, naaa - that'd be too easy. In case there is some issue where it's not displaying all threads at once.

Another funny thing. I'll just call each "thread group" A, B, C and D. So that someone responding can actually imagine what is happening. For the sake of clarity, each thread group is 10 pages long.

A pages 1-10

B pages 11-20

C pages 21-30

D pages 31-40

(If there are supposed to be different thread groups, I'm guessing yes, though it was too difficult to code the app to distinguish one from another).

With group B selected (clicking any text frame in pages 11-20) and the blue thread lines showing, none of the other "groups" display the thread lines. However, clicking on the lower text frame on the preceding group A, on page 10, then displays the thread from page 10 to 11. How nice is that, wow. And it goes like this through the document.

My memory is that Quark displays linked frames (and overset text) in much the same way, so I'm not sure why you think that will be easier.

It appears from your description that you have 4 stories that were placed in your document. I don't quite understand what you mean about page 10 though. A screen shot would help. embed it in your next post using the camera icon on the web page, like this:

Well, if they are multiple stories... Is there a way to confirm that? Do the thread lines change colors? Is there as story (qty) indicator? Or, better yet, can they be combined or fused, to resolve the issue? (without having to delete and/or recreate etc.) ? ? ?

The fact that they are not currently threaded to one another means they are separate stories. It's easy to thread them together, though if that's what you want, though there is really no compelling reason to do so (and it would be a big error to thread a TOC or Index story to anything else).

Click the outport of the last frame on one story, then click inside the first frame of the story you want to follow it. If there was empty space in the last frame of the first story, the second story will flow back to fill it and oopen more space in its last frame.

Ha ha, that's fantastic - Brilliant. Two text frames overlay eachother on one page, so it gave the impression of only a single text frame on the page - since the threads aren't multi-colored. Maybe different stories should have different color threads, then this wouldn't have happened. Wow, brilliant app.

Edit: How about a "story" fly-out palette, that would have revealed the issue too, assuming it would indicate overlaying frames. Basic coding.

Two text frames overlay eachother on one page, so it gave the impression of only a single text frame on the page

That's user error, not ID. This is a professional application and there is a learning curve. If you ditch the attitude, read the help files, or buy a good book like Sandee Cohen's Visual QuickStart Guide or Real World InDesign (more advanced), or spend some time doing tutorials someplace like Lynda.com you might actually see the logic and utility of how ID works compared to other layout apps.

As I recall, Peter (eh hemm).. With multiple stories in a document, adding content to an intermediary story (not layer), would then cause content to then be overlayed when it flowed into a story occupying the same page that it was expanding into... I coud be wrong, but that's what I was interpreting two sets of different text on top of one another being. That would be justficiation I would think, wouldn't it? If the stories did not automatically re-page themselves to prevent overlaying text/frames. Always by design, is it?

Again that would be user error. One should not be using autoflow to place stories onto pages that already have a full compliment of content.

The only reason I've ever heard that makes any sense for using multiple layers to flow text is if you intend to hide layers to use the same document ofr muliple versions, as in multiple languages (and our main translation volunteer expert feels this is decidedly not a good workflow).